Method and plant for cooling a mixture of ingredients of concrete
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for cooling concrete ingredients are inefficient, energy-intensive, and unable to maintain the required water-to-cement ratio, leading to temperature inconsistencies and potential cracking during high-temperature casting.
Innovation Solution
A method and plant using a hermetically sealed tank system with vacuum regulation and condensation to evaporate water, recycling the condensed water to maintain the predetermined water content, thereby cooling the concrete ingredients while preserving the desired water-to-cement ratio.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If ice and cold water are used to cool concrete ingredients, then cooling capacity is provided, but energy consumption increases significantly to compensate for heat dispersion and the cooling degree is limited to approximately 25°C
Solution Approach 1:
The invention utilizes the phase transition of water from liquid to vapor through evaporation, which absorbs latent heat and effectively cools the concrete ingredients. This phase change mechanism provides superior cooling efficiency compared to using ice and cold water, achieving temperatures below 25°C while reducing energy consumption by eliminating the need to maintain large stocks of ice and cold water.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts and removes water vapor from the concrete mixture during the evaporation process, preventing the need to compensate for heat dispersion. By continuously removing the evaporated water, the system maintains efficient cooling without requiring excessive energy input to replace lost cold elements.
2Temperature
If cold water and ice are used for cooling, then some cooling effect is achieved, but the water-to-cement ratio cannot be maintained as water is lost through evaporation
Solution Approach 1:
The invention implements a feedback mechanism by monitoring the water content in the concrete mixture and automatically adjusting the water addition rate to compensate for evaporation losses. This closed-loop control ensures that the water-to-cement ratio is continuously maintained at the required level despite ongoing evaporation during the cooling process.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of discarding the evaporated water as a loss, the system recovers and condenses the water vapor, then returns the condensed water to the concrete mixture. This approach both maintains the water-to-cement ratio and utilizes the latent heat released during condensation for potential energy recovery or additional cooling.
3Productivity
If vacuum evaporation is used to cool concrete, then cooling efficiency improves, but system complexity increases due to hermetically sealed tanks and vacuum regulation requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The hermetically sealed tank system serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides the vacuum environment necessary for efficient evaporation cooling, prevents contamination of the concrete mixture, controls water vapor escape, and facilitates the feedback control mechanism for maintaining water-to-cement ratio. This multi-functionality justifies the increased structural complexity by consolidating several requirements into a single integrated system.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system efficiently cools concrete ingredients to desired temperatures, maintaining the water-to-cement ratio, reducing energy consumption by 30-40% compared to prior art, and enabling immediate casting without further adjustments.
Implementation Method 1
cooling a mixture of ingredients of concrete using the latent heat from evaporation of water
Implementation Method 2
cooling a mixture of ingredients of concrete using the latent heat from evaporation of water
Implementation Method 3
a hermetically sealed condensation chamber (4) in which the evaporated water is condensed
Data Source
AI summary
A method and plant for cooling a mixture of concrete, includes: loading in a hermetically sealed tank a given quantity of ingredients to form the concrete, the ingredients including a predetermined quantity of water; regulating the pressure in the tank to obtain a transitory degree of vacuum in the tank; regulating the pressure inside a hermetically sealed condensation chamber to obtain a basic degree of vacuum in the condensation chamber that is greater than the transitory degree of vacuum, such that the pressure in the condensation chamber is lower than the pressure in the tank; operatively connecting the tank and the condensation chamber to substantially equalize the internal pressure in the tank and in the condensation chamber to a resulting degree of vacuum and to cause at least partial evaporation of the water from the tank towards the condensation chamber to lower the temperature of the ingredients in the tank.